The friendship between man and dog stretches back for thousands of years. Now experts have found dogs don’t like people who are mean to their owners. Japanese researchers showed that dogs will refuse food offered by people who have snub their master, demonstrating the animal's capacity to co-operate socially.

　　狗狗和人类之间的友谊可以追溯到几千年以前。现在专家们发现狗狗们不喜欢对自己主人吝啬的人。日本研究家展示了狗狗会拒绝那些冷落自己主人的人给的食物，证明了动物的社交合作能力。

　　This capacity is found in a very small number of species, including humans and some other primates. Researchers led by Kazuo Fujita, a professor of comparative cognition at Kyoto University, tested three groups of 18 dogs using role plays in which their owners needed to open a box.

　　专家们还发现只有一小部分物种有这种能力，包括人类及一些其他灵长类动物。由日本京都大学比较认知专业教授藤田和夫领导的专家团队进行了一组实验，其中有3组狗狗，每组18只，试验中用到了角色扮演，他们的主人需要打开一个盒子。

　　In all three groups, the owner was accompanied by two people whom the dog did not know. In the first group, the owner sought assistance from one of the people, who actively refused to help. In the second group, the owner asked for, and received help from one person. In both groups, the third person was neutral and was not involved in either helping or refusing to help.

　　在所有三组中，主人都由两位狗狗不认识的人陪同。第一组，主人向其中一个人寻求帮助，但被拒绝。第二组，主人也向其中一个人寻求帮助，并成功得到帮助。两组中的另外一个人始终保持中立，不拒绝也不主动帮助。

　　After watching each box-opening scene, a dog was offered food by the two unfamiliar people in the room. Canine that saw their owner being rebuff were much more likely choose food from neutral observer while ignoring the person who refused to help their master. Dogs whose owners were helped and dogs whose owners did not interact with either person showed no marked preference for accepting snacks from the strangers.

　　在看到盒子被打开后，房间里两个狗狗都不熟悉的人会给它提供食物。看到自己的主人被冷落的狗狗会选择接受保持中立的那个人的食物，无视拒绝帮助自己主人的那个人。看到自己的主人成功获得帮助的狗狗以及主人没有与其他人交流的狗狗，在选择接受食物时没有特别的选择性。

　　If the dogs were acting solely out of self-interest, there would have been no differences among the groups, with animals accepting food equally from the different people, the researchers explained.

　　如果狗狗仅仅是单纯地、出于自己兴趣地行动，那这几组测试便不会有任何差别，狗狗们会平等的接受来自任何一个人的食物。

　　‘We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest,' Professor Fujita said.‘This ability is one of key factors in building a highly collaborative society and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans.’

　　藤田和夫说：“我们第一次发现狗狗们可以不按照自己的直接兴趣、而是依据社交和情感判断来选择和人交往。这种能力是建立高度社会合作的关键因素，而且研究显示狗狗在与人类的交往中使用了这种能力”。

　　Previous studies say the trait is present in children from the age of three. But Professor Fujita said that not all primates demonstrate cooperative behaviour. ‘There is a similar study that showed tufted capuchins (a monkey native to South America) have this ability, but there is no evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate a preference unless there is a direct benefit to them,’ he told AFP.

　　之前的研究表明这种特点存在于3岁以上的小孩中。但藤田和夫教授说并不是所有灵长类动物都显示有这种合作行为。他告知法新社：“有相似的研究表明簇绒卷尾猴(源于南美洲的一种猴群)也有这种能力，但没有证据表明黑猩猩会凭自己的直接利益判断与谁接触。”

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（责任编辑：何莹莹）